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XP stuck in reboot loop

I could use expert advice please. I am trying to fix my sister's laptop. It is a
Toshiba running Windows XP Pro. Service pack 2. It is stuck in a reboot loop -msg=
We are sorry for the inconvenience...this may be due to a software or hardware problem-
the options given are:
safe mode
normal boot
last known good config
etc...
It will not boot in any choices given, it will not boot from the cd rom - the cd
rom drives starts & stops- I can use a dos floppy but the commands do not execute. I cannot change directories.

I can boot from the 6 windows set-up floppys but on clicking "R" to repair it goes back into the continuous loop. If I click install from the set-up floppys it says insert XP cd rom but it will not execute, no choice but to exit on that one.

I tried using a crossover cable & partition magic to copy the files she wanted off the drive but it did not recognize the laptop on the desktop pc.

I cannot get into BIOS to see what is going on there.I found the bios key it is f8 for the toshiva satellite A15-S127 - I also found this note from a post online: "A note to those who want to play with BIOS settings. Normally if you want to enter BIOS,pressing F1 or F8 or Del key(One of these three) will take
you there.But with Toshiba you will have to start up XP first and then go to BIOS through Toshiba console."

That would explain why I cannot access bios. When I click f8, it throws out a couple of other options, none of which allow access to bios...If I could get the cd rom to work I would be in great shape...this is a tough cookie to crack!

It seems to be my only option is to remove the hard drive to a working pc & copy the files. I am open to suggestions here...I have researched this problem extensively online, there are loads of posts with the exact same conditions but no workarounds that were successful that I could find.

Suggestions anyone? I am running out of ideas here...

thanks ever so much!

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Comments

It seems to come down to the fact that it just doesn't like either the cdrom drive or the disc itself. Do you have another XPpro CD you could try? Is the disc scratched or smudged? Is there any indication the drive itself could be failing?

If you can copy the WinXP CD to a CD-R it may be worth your while to try that. If you have a USB drive you could use you might get around the problem that way.

A couple of things which might be good to get out of the way are to 1) Run the hard drive diagnostic program from the drive manufacturer, and 2) Run Memtest-86. It's very easy to go 'round and 'round trying to make something work, only to find out after much grief that a hardware problem had doomed you from the very start. If nothing else, at least you can go forward with confidence that those items are out of the way. Both of those test programs will run off of either a floppy disk or a cdrom. I'd be inclined to try the cdrom version first - if you can boot from that then you've also eliminated the drive as a possible culprit.

The cd is o.k. it will boot fine & execute on my desktop. I was able to get into bios & change the boot order, but the cd rom still starts & shuts down. I tried booting again from the 6 set-up floppys & then tried the cd rom again...still a no go on that...it executes & asks for the xp service pk 2 disk, but it will not pick it up from the restoration disk. I am open to suggestions here...any takers?

It seems to come down to the fact that it just doesn't like either the cdrom drive or the disc itself. Do you have another XPpro CD you could try? Is the disc scratched or smudged? Is there any indication the drive itself could be failing?

If you can copy the WinXP CD to a CD-R it may be worth your while to try that. If you have a USB drive you could use you might get around the problem that way.

A couple of things which might be good to get out of the way are to 1) Run the hard drive diagnostic program from the drive manufacturer, and 2) Run Memtest-86. It's very easy to go 'round and 'round trying to make something work, only to find out after much grief that a hardware problem had doomed you from the very start. If nothing else, at least you can go forward with confidence that those items are out of the way. Both of those test programs will run off of either a floppy disk or a cdrom. I'd be inclined to try the cdrom version first - if you can boot from that then you've also eliminated the drive as a possible culprit.

Thanks for all your help, I just got it up & running. I used xp pro set up disk and from the restore option in DOS, executed a "FIXMBR" after which, I ran "CHKDSK" rebooted et voila! Perfect World!
Thanks again!

As a final check, running the diagnostic test from your Hard Drive manufacturer would still be a good idea. That problem could easily have come from simple data corruption of the boot sector, or it could be from the drive starting to go south on you. If the drive tests out fine then you'll be glad to know that the problem is gone for good. If not, you'll be better off knowing sooner rather than later.

I had this infinite loop issue with my lan drivers recently. After I installed the drivers from the mfg I went to windows updates and downloaded and installed the ones they had to offer. Well whatever those drivers were they were they sent me into an infinite loop.
I uninstalled the windows update driver and the issue was resolved immediately.
Not to say this is the same problem you had ...just something to be aware of.

I have a similar problem with reboot loop but I can never get to log-in screen. I had recently purchased the machine from a trusted individual. Fairly new. Had started setting up the machine on my network. loaded som major programs on the machine, tested them and network and all was fine.

Here goes the problem. Went to change name of computer. Changed it. Rebooted as directed and loop started. Will not allow to go to optional boot-ups (safe mode, etc) - just reboots.

Cannot get that far. Used setup disk, went to repair (only other option than "Continue With Setup"), tried to repair, system said no hard drive found (2 Raptor drives in Raid 0 installed), and told me to quit.

Right then... my Toshiba lap top is having VERY simmilar issues. It will power up showing the first screen that says "Toshiba, In touch with Tomorrow." and then it will also give me the options; safe mode normal boot last known good config amongst a few others, but regardless, none of them work. I Tried all of them, and they will all take me to the Windows XP screen where it just loads and loads before it shuts off and starts the loop again...I dont know what to do... :banghead:

ok so i had windows xp on my computer and had an older 60 gig hard drive, my friend gave me his newer 320 gig sata drive cause he felt bad for me and im practically broke all the time. so i plugged it in and i found he had left his old windows vista data and all of the drivers on his computer there i got rid of them and partitioned the drive not realizing even though it is a slave that it is read before the master hard drive and my computer is stuck in an infinite loop i thought it was my older hard drive so i took it out and installed windows xp on the new sata drive well i have an older version of xp and it lacks the sata driver i recently got a newer copy and to install but both drives are now stuck in a loop my computer specs are gigabyte s series mother board, nvidia geforce 7900 gts, to be honest im not sure what the sound card is i lost the box. amd dual core 2.1 ghz 2 gig of ram and a 450 watt power supply and i tried taking out the new hard drive going back to the old one doesn't work either. if any one could help i would be very appreciative ^^

My hp laptop was stuck in infinite boot loop (windows xp prfessional) with its last known configuration messed up. This happened after I uninstalled Norton antivirus and ran a registry cleaner.

Nothing worked for ages then one day I started my laptop again and noticed a line that appeared for less than 5 seconds during the boot process : "Press F11 for emergency recovery".

Then that's it, I pressed that F11 when asked and followed steps to recovery. There were four options, I pressed the second one that said something like "Backs up your files, creates a seperate folder, later you can take it from there"...I did that and my laptop recovered in a total of 25-30 minutes and works like new. Even all the old bugger problems were back. Except that the Norton was back to annoy me, this time I decided to let it be.

Second problem was with my desktop this week. My friend had installed Office 2010 on it and then I tried to uninstall it without success, I got revocleaner and ccleaner and they couldn't uninstall it. But something when wrong during this and now my desktop wont walk ahead of the welcome screen after I entered my password. No moving back to last configuration helped. Ultimately, I opened my desktop in safe mode and Restored it to a day ago. It performed CHKDSK and recovered an "orphaned file " (this was before restore, when I'd clicked "last configuration"blah).